The Night After

Man, I am in a world of pain. Right now my left leg is a 60lb dead weight. My quad is completely inactive and I have no control over the leg. I can hamstring curl to about 80 degrees.

I came out of surgery feeling well. I had pretty good range of motion and could do straight leg lifts and flex quad. Or maybe that was just the morphine talking.

My wife and my folks visited me in the hospital and I was pretty chatty... then they left and everything went wrong.

The nurse came in and left me a jug to pee in. I told her I'd be fine and able to make it to the washroom. They tied me into the continuous motion machine and shot me up with some Demerol and I was off to sleep congratulating myself for my diligent pre-hab and how well it paid off.

I woke up shortly thereafter with an unconscious amount of pain, and I had to go to the bathroom. I was pretty happy to have the jug, I could barely sit up to use it let alone walk to the bathroom.

I paged the nurse to get some more painkillers but she wouldn't have it, I was 2 hours away from my next dosage. I laid there sweating, in and out of sleep for that period. Eventually they came in and gave me another dosage but it was pretty useless.

I was in so much pain all night, until they took me out of the continuous motion machine. As soon as they took me out I was out of pain. So I have all kinds of thoughts on the continuous motion machine, which I will ask the physiotherapist about on Monday. I had good range of motion already, I wonder if the machine moved me past that range of motion into an area that caused swelling. Or I wonder if I was always going to have swelling and be in a world of pain that night.

So my workout now is the following:
1. Standing ham curls, holding on to a chair, 3 times per day
2. Lying flat quad contractions - lie on bed and squeeze your quad, as often as I remember
3. Seated ham curls - foot on floor slide towards yourself
4. Calf stretch
5. Gentle hammy stretch
6. Breathing exercises (helps clear out the anaesthetic)

I use the following rehab tools:
1. Bregs Polar Care Cyrotherapy Unit - continuously ices my knee to help fight swelling
2. Jobst pump - compresses up and down my leg to break up swelling and ensures blood flow to the calves

I'm on percocet for pain, and I'm fumbling around on crutches with a severe case of armpit rash.

Diet - I'm following Berardi's Nutrition & Injuries
1. High calories @4500
2. Tons of veggies & protein
3. High fiber carbs

I have the following shake twice a day:
1. Protein
2. Water
3. Banana
4. L-Glut
5. L-Arg
6. Greens+ Daily Detox

I also have a fiber supplement to help me wtih regularity, the percocet blocks me up.